Takeaways: Capitals Lose Two To Injury, Struggles Continue In Ugly 5-1 Loss To Islanders

The Washington Capitals were looking for a better showing and better result after a slow start out of the gate following the holiday break, but again, things fell apart against the New York Islanders.

Besides a late goal from Nicolas Aube-Kubel, the Capitals couldn't get anything going offensively, and to make matters worse, they lost two key names to injury while suffering an ugly 5-1 loss to the Islanders.

Here are all the takeaways from the defeat as the losing streak hits three:

Washington had started things off okay, but in the opening minutes, things started to go south as Charlie Lindgren and Martin Fehervary left the game with upper-body injuries.

Lindgren suffered his ailment on one of the first shots of the game and was hurting after stopping a high shot from Brock Nelson. He spoke with trainers and stayed in for a couple of minutes afterwards. However, he would soon exit the game, and Fehervary would go with him.

Fehervary was in a race for the puck with Anders Lee when he got tangled up and tripped, going hard into the boards. He went down in visible pain and was attended to by Jason Serbus before leaving the game.

Both would not return, and Darcy Kuemper took over while the likes of Joel Edmundson, Rasmus Sandin and Trevor van Riemsdyk — who plays both sides — took extra shifts to accommodate for Fehervary's absence.

It wasn't the best game for Kuemper, who surrendered five goals on 32 shots, or the defense, as the team again struggled to stop the bleeding in spurts.

Washington surrendered two quick goals less than two minutes apart in the opening period to go down 2-0 and three goals in a span of 4:16 minutes in the third to go down 5-0.

In the end, the Capitals had 11 giveaways and just four takeaways. Still, the team blocked 17 shots.

Head coach Spencer Carbery had made significant changes to the lines going into Friday's contest in hopes of sparking the offense. Connor McMichael had moved up to the top line to work with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, while Dylan Strome went to operate with Anthony Mantha and Aliaksei Protas.

However, those lines would change again mid-game, with the team still unable to generate at 5-on-5.

Washington struggled to get a lot going in ways of offense and couldn't get into a rhythm. Those lines would shift as time went on, with Aube-Kubel going to work with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin and the "McProMo" line reuniting.

The Capitals managed 27 shots, and finally, with 17.9 seconds to go in regulation, Aube-Kubel charged into the offensive zone and went hard to the net before scoring on a fluky bounce.

Washington also failed to get much going on the power play.

- Edmundson, Aube-Kubel and Hendrix Lapierre were tied for the team lead in shots with three each.

- Sandin assisted on Aube-Kubel's goal and now has helpers in back-to-back games.

- Mantha, Ovechkin and Nick Jensen each led with three hits, while John Carlson had a team-leading five blocks in the loss.

- Carlson led all skaters with 28:06 minutes.